Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda: Playing Americans for suckers

The suicide bombing in Uganda’s capital of Kampala by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab serves several agendas. While the facile and clueless Western media call it an “anti-World Cup attack” and the lame Obama White House says it proves al-Qaeda’s “racism” toward Africans, the reality is that from al-Sahbab’s perspective the attack is a logical and necessary response to the prolonged U.S.- and Western-backed intervention in Somalia. (How long, one wonders, will it take U.S. and Western officials to learn people don’t like being occupied?) The Kampala attack also is another episode in al-Qaeda’s ongoing campaign to lure the United States into more interventions in the Muslim world.

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Americans and al-Qaeda: Laughing our way to the graveyard

Al-Qaeda’s organization in Yemen — known as Al-Qaeda-in-the-Arab Peninsula (AQAP) — recently published the first issue of an English-language, electronic magazine called Inspire. The magazine is the project of Anwar al-Awalki, the U.S.-born and formally U.S.-based Muslim scholar who seems to be tied to several of the actual and would-be Islamist attackers arrested in America in 2009 and 2010. The magazine appears to be al-Qaeda’s first English-language periodical, although the group does regularly publish materials in languages other than Arabic. All of its leaders’ speeches, for example, are published in English translations.

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July 4th, 2010: Ready for more intervention, incoming nukes, and war with Iran?

The Founders foresaw many problems for the republic they created and tried to provide durable solutions for and protection against them. There is no evidence, however, that they thought the republic would one day be ruled by men who are arrogant and incompetent usurpers. On this July 4th, however, we are enduring the fourth consecutive presidential administration that can only be described in that way.

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On comments to the site, armed rebellion, Dr. Rand Paul, and Israel-First

I am still getting the hang of manipulating all the tools for this website and so have been slow in responding to comments made at the bottom of articles. I have spent a good part of this day going over them and I must first thank all who have commented. I truly appreciate the comments, approving and critical alike.

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Obama should have sent a Marine

General McChrystal’s insubordinate but perfectly accurate words disqualified him from continuing to command U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Obama is a wimp, Holbrooke is a fool, and Biden is marooned in the Cold War. Still, if you take the king’s shilling and you must do the king’s bidding, and do it silently. The problem of McChrystral is over and will have no impact on the Afghan War. That war was lost more than a year ago by Obama, Biden, Holbrooke, McChrystal, and Petraeus and their fantasy counterinsurgency policy.

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In Illinois: A pro-war, anti-1st Amendment Senate campaign

How many votes do you think a candidate for the U.S. Senate would draw if he promised his state’s citizens more wars and a weakening of the separation of church and state? “Ladies and Gentlemen,” let us imagine such a candidate saying, “if you elect me as your Senator I pledge to do all that is humanly possible to involve the United States in other peoples’ wars and to end the ridiculous 1st Amendment prohibition on federal government support for religion. In fact I will promise each of you that in the Senate I will work without let up to make sure that one religion is favored by Washington over all others at home and abroad and that all Americans contribute whatever is necessary for its support.” On its face, this does not sound like a a campaign theme that would attract an awful lot of votes and might well be suicidal for any candidate signing on to it. Why would anyone vote for more war and a state-sponsored and supported religion?

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America’s alliances: Time for a second look?

This week the moderators of the National Journal’s national-security blog asked the following question: “Are America’s Alliances Fraying?” It seems to me the answer is yes, and that they ought to be fraying. Most were created to serve U.S. interests in America’s half-century confrontation with the Soviet Union, and so their main reason for existence ended in 1991. This fundamental change, however, has not been reflected in Washington’s diplomacy no matter which party is governing. Indeed, as noted below, our diplomats are still actively seeking new alliances and relationships for America, many of which seem more dangerous than beneficial.

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President Obama and the Gulf oil leak: Will it be statesmanship or political expediency?

After weeks of media stories, myriad photos of oil-coated birds and fish, the president throwing tantrums like a bewildered teenager nearing adulthood, and the Congress disguising its failures by venting its hypocritical spleen at British Petroleum (BP) executives, Mr. Obama will give Americans his views on the Gulf oil leak on Tuesday evening. Before the president speaks it might be helpful to fix blame for the Gulf mess where it belongs. Three questions and answers ought to turn the trick:

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Time for America to un-intervene in Israel-vs-Palestine

Washington’s bipartisan groveling to and knee-jerk support for Israeli actions are nearing an epic success. They are shattering the last of the thin veneer of Westernization in Turkey; reminding the Turks they are Muslims; pushing the Turks into the Muslim world; and encouraging Islamism in Turkey. This is a nightmarish achievement of Homeric dimensions and was caused by Israel and its U.S.-citizen friends corrupting, intimidating, and ultimately dictating policy to U.S. politicians and media. With an economy on the rocks, two wars being lost, and Obama’s lynch-law-style chase of BP unfolding, we find the decision about war in the Levant, and whether the United States joins it, is in the hands of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ability to divine what God wants done to protect His chosen people. This is insane.

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